Negre also made it clear that the rule and format changes the game has witnessed in the recent past have been driven by TV ratings.
"I'm in full support to have Champions Trophy with eight teams. All of you need to understand our strategy. If you want to promote hockey, you just can't limit a tournament to the top teams in the world. This format gives more opportunities. We need to open hockey to the world. I'm really glad with the results of the quarterfinals," Negre said at a press conference at Kalinga Stadium here.
He said to promote hockey, FIH needs to "sell" the game.
"I think we need to make changes. I am quite sure all of you will agree that the changes we have made are for the best of hockey. The new rules are much better than how we used to play 4 years ago. I also know that by introducing too many changes we can have confusions, but if we have a good idea I think we need to implement that," he said.
Not long ago, hockey was under threat to be axed from the Olympic programme and that may have given a wake-up call to FIH to find ways to raise the popularity of the game through television by changing rules and formats.